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Allayar Shirliyev, a 21-year-old conscript soldier, and Meryem Agajanova, a 17-year-old Ashgabat high school student, became champions of Turkmenistan for the first time in their chess career.

The highest league of the national championship was held in Ashgabat from March 4 to 17 in two rounds. The eight strongest chess players and female chess players of the country played each other twice (white and black) during the two-week tournament.

Having seized the lead in the middle of the tournament distance, Allayar Shirliyev, who serves in the ranks of the State Border Guard Service, confidently brought the matter to victory, scoring 11.5 points out of 14 possible. This achievement also allowed Shirliev to raise his Elo/FIDE rating by 72 points and exceed the level of 2,200 points.

17-year–old Ashgabat high school student Amanmukhammet Hommadov (rating - 2222) was one point behind the winner, and 18-year-old student of the Turkmen State Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering Vepaly Halyyazov (2034) finished third with 9 points.

The Chess Federation of Turkmenistan also noted the worthy 4th place of another Ashgabat schoolboy - 16–year-oldAzym Saryev (1906), who, despite his 33rd place in the rating list of Turkmen chess players, worthily made his debut in the Top League, scoring 8 points and getting into the reserve of the adult national team.

The candidate for master of sports Shahruh Turaev, who finished the first round of the tournament in first place, very unsuccessfully spent the second part of the tournament and dropped to 5th place in the final position with 7.5 points.

A bright performance and a relatively easy victory were expected from the 2023 champion Maksat Atabayev, however, after unexpected defeats in the first two rounds, the international grandmaster decided to withdraw from the tournament distance.

The SHVT recalled that due to the high rating indicators, two leaders of the national team – Saparmyrat Atabayev (2506) and Meylis Annaberdyev (2467) have already secured a place in the national team without participation in the Top League.

The girls' main fight for medals was between two sisters Shohradova and Meryem Agajanova. Despite two defeats in the face–to–face confrontation against the older and more famous of the sisters, Lala, Meryem (FIDE rating - 1873) demonstrated a 100 percent result against all other competitors in the tournament, which allowed her to retain first place, scoring 12 points out of 14 possible.

Lala Shohradova, an 18-year-old high school student from Danev etrap (1949) took second place with 11 points, and her 17-year-old sister Leila (1929) rounded out the top three.

A confident 4th place in the tournament and, accordingly, a place in the women's national team was taken by 13-year-old Jahan Rejepova from Turkmenabat.

An intense struggle unfolded for the 5th place, which also ensures entry into the women's national team. Three athletes at once – Enesh Arazmedova, a pupil of the Ashgabat chess school, Bagul Ezizova, the winner of this year's First League, and Ogulsuray Bayrambaeva, the winner of last year's women's top league, scored 4.5 points each and shared 5-7 places. We had to resort to additional coefficients, which gave preference to 16-year-old schoolgirl Enesh Arazmedova.

So, the composition of the national men's and women's national teams of the country has been determined, and starting tomorrow, the team of athletes and the chess federation will begin to prepare for responsible international starts, the most important of which will be the World Chess Olympiad, which will be held in September in Budapest, Hungary.

The details of the tournament battles can be found at the following link, where you can also find recordings of all the games played at the tournament, as well as video analyses of some interesting games.

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Photo: CFT